Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“What do you mean you’re switching your day off?”
Captain Dick-head looked like he was about to blow a gasket, which was a little over-the-top for Lace simply telling him she’d be absent on Tuesdays instead of Fridays.
“Something important has come up,” she placated. “It requires my attention elsewhere on Tuesdays.” She kept her voice as calm as possible. “Next week, however, will stay the same until the change is implemented.”
Her chemo team had told her to miss next Friday, and start up the following Tuesday with her new schedule.
“After that, switching my day off to Tuesday will be necessary.”
“Bullshit,” the man squawked, his face red. “Utter bullshit. I’ll be calling your bosses, little Missie.”
Little Missie? Who the hell said that anymore?
“That’s your prerogative,” she told him, attempting to ignore his misogynistic comment.
Damn. It was a good thing Lace had texted her office first thing this morning and already received approval. Her higher-ups knew what she was going through with her treatments, and wouldn’t disclose anything personal to Captain Pussy-pants if he called.
And seriously? Her bosses truly appreciated that she was still carrying on with her job despite her circumstances. Especially since they were so short staffed with all the current budget cuts.
They hadn’t even blinked at the change.
“But FYI, my bosses already know,” she informed the spluttering jerk.
What was the big deal anyway? Tuesday or Friday, it shouldn’t make a difference. They did the exact same thing, from pretty much the exact same location every day they were out here.
Captain Whiny-dick was just being his normal, asshole self; trying to make trouble where there was none.
“We’ll see about this,” he growled, his eyes going to nasty slits as he stomped away.
Right.
There was nothing he could do, so…
Suck it up, Buttercup.
Going back to her seat near the aft until they reached their destination, she watched as the captain, on the way back to the helm, grabbed one of the two young men who had been nice to her so far this summer. They chatted for no more than a minute, then the kid headed her way.
Great.
The captain had obviously ordered him to “have a talk” with Lace, to get her to change her mind.
Not happening.
“Hey Zach. What’s up?” Lace greeted, forcing a smile to her face.
He seemed uncomfortable as he sat down beside her.
“Uh, the captain wants me to talk you out of changing your day off to Tuesdays,” Zach began.
Lace was glad he didn’t beat around the bush, because neither would she.
“Well, here’s the story, Zach.”
She took a second to debate how much to tell him.
Ryan had walked up as she’d thrown out her initial response. He sat down on her other side, joining the discussion with a grin. “Yeah. Give us the deets.”
“Not you, too, Ryan,” Lace groaned.
“Not me, too, what?” he asked, clearly clueless.
Zach quickly filled him in. “The captain is pissed because Lace is changing her day off from Friday to Tuesday,” he said pointedly.
Ryan’s eyes widened and his leg began a nervous jiggle.
That was a little too weird for what they were discussing.
Alarm bells started clanging in Lace’s head. What the hell was going on?
She’d have to ponder it later, because Ryan was speaking again.
“I, uh, see,” Ryan finally managed. “Umm, Lace? Maybe we can talk you out of it?” he conjectured.
Now wasn’t the time to mess around. Lace needed to lay her shit right on the line.
“Not happening,” she responded gravely, then sucked in a breath.
“Have you two ever wondered why I always keep my head covered? Even when it gets really hot? And why I avoid the sun whenever possible?”
“Umm, yeah. Like maybe you get sun poisoning or something?” Zach suggested.
Lace took a quick look around and saw that the four other men onboard were busy, so she picked up the edge of her head-scarf and lifted it surreptitiously to show them her bald pate.
“Wh…?” Ryan’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t grow hair?”
Lace laughed, because that was a funny thing to say. Like she was one of those hairless cats or something.
Her mind started to drift into a picture of herself as a jaunty, skin-only feline, but she nipped it in the bud. There was no time for daydreaming right now.
“No. I actually have cancer,” she told them bluntly. “Breast cancer to be exact. And I’m undergoing chemotherapy treatments once a week.”
“Wow.” Zach’s entire frame seemed to collapse, then he got really quiet.
Ryan, however, looked a little freaked as he edged away from her a few inches.
Yup. She got that sometimes; people moving as if cancer was catching.
“Yeah. Wow,” Lace agreed, ignoring Ryan’s inappropriate reaction. “And my infusion schedule has now changed from Fridays to Tuesdays, so it’s not like I can do anything about it.”
She wasn’t going to tell them the real reason for the shift in timing. It was none of their business.
“Shit, Lace. We didn’t know. Why don’t you just tell the captain?” Ryan queried, stepping back up to engage.
She scoffed. “And have him find a way to complain that I’m not capable of doing my job? No thanks.”
Both young men huffed, nodded, and stared intently at their feet.
Yeah. Something was going on.
Lace was going to have to keep her eyes open.
The morning ran smoothly after that.
Lace didn’t have much interaction with Captain Jerk-face, for which she was extremely grateful.
Another bonus? Today’s longlines hadn’t brought in much of anything concerning.
A normal amount of undersized tuna that had to get thrown back, but at least the turtle catch had calmed down.
That’s probably because they’d laid their lines out in a spot that was a few miles north of where they’d set their hooks two days previous.
It was smart thinking for the stubborn captain, but he’d probably tallied up the time, labor, and bait lost with the extraneous catch, and had changed positions due to his pocketbook.
The day’s luck didn’t last long, however.
Rain and wind moved in at noon, with a vengeance. It was completely unexpected, but that didn’t slow down their operations. It was simply harder going, but they all knew the ropes.
It wasn’t until just after one that the captain announced gale warnings up to fifty knots were being posted for the afternoon, and they’d have to pack things in.
High winds were always a deal killer.
They swiftly finished baiting and setting the current line they’d be soaking, then headed back to port.
Of course, Captain Nasty-nads wasn’t happy about that. Grumbling and swearing for the entire trip in, he told everyone to be prepared to weigh anchor an hour early the following morning.
But even that couldn’t stifle Lace’s joy. Having a rare afternoon off when she wasn’t recovering from her infusions? That was a huge bonus.
She wondered if Vincent…?
Yup. She was going to text him as soon as she was within range of a cell phone tower.
The ride back in was rough, but nothing Lace wasn’t used to. She’d grown up with the sea in her blood, and seasickness wasn’t something she’d ever experienced. When she’d first started chemo, she’d worried that the drugs might change that, but luckily, they hadn’t.
Lace left her seat below where the crew hunkered, taking her leave to make her way up the stairway and to the forward deck where she braced herself in the wind, tipping her head to the cloud-darkened sky.
She really enjoyed standing at the forecastle in the rain, even knowing she’d be one soggy dog when all was said and done.
But the strident weather made her feel alive, and that was something that had been sorely lacking since her diagnosis.
Well… At least until the advent of Vincent.
Had it only been a little more than a week ago when he’d first run into her in the hospital?
It seemed like she’d known him forever.
Of course, being around Sothards in some form or another for most of her life—remembering Vincent’s mother, slipping into Buck’s orbit a time or two each month when Lace managed a moment with Bobbie—made Vince feel even more familiar.
And soon she’d be living with him.
Dang. Exciting.
Especially if things progressed in the manner they seemed to be headed.
Although…
Lace still had doubts that Vince knew what he was getting into with the whole breast cancer, then lifelong-cancer-patient classification she’d have even after remission. She’d need to make sure he knew all the facts before he did any kind of committing.
Lace put that on her mental list of “things to talk to your new roommate about”, and crossed her fingers. She hoped that nothing she said would be a game changer.
Dreaming about having not only Vince, but possibly little Inez in her house—Oh. And a dog—made her future seem brighter than it had appeared in a very long time.
Refreshed, Lace made her way back belowdecks, avoiding the other, older and gruffer crewmembers, to sit with her two young buddies.
“So what are you guys going to do with your rare afternoon off?” she asked.
“I’m going to see my mother,” Zach offered up. “She really misses me this time of year.” His face fell, and he turned to look right into her eyes. “My… My dad actually had cancer, too, and passed away ten months ago, so all Mom has is me and my little sister.”
Lace had pretty much figured, by Zach’s original reaction to her reveal, that he’d had some kind of experience with cancer-hell.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she told him sincerely.
“Yeah. Me too,” he acknowledged.
“How long have you been working on this boat?” she asked, changing the subject so he didn’t get sucked down into a mind-fuck.
“Just this summer,” he told her. His eyes got a far-away look in them. “Last year I was on a trawler in Alaska catching pollock, and the summer before that—right after I finished high school—I went south and did the longline thing in North Carolina, hooking Mahi-Mahi,” he finished.
He sighed.
Clearly, he’d taken this job closer to home so he could be around for his mother.
Sweet boy.
“I’m going right to my girlfriend’s house,” Ryan didn’t hesitate to share, once Zach had wound down, taking the spotlight off his friend. “We just started dating last winter. She’s not thrilled with how much I work, but the money’s good, so she’s not complaining too much.”
Lace knew that the amount the young men earned was based on the size of the catch, and the fact that they were part of a six-member crew—the other four being older, seasoned hands, plus the captain—the money probably wasn’t all that great.
But youth…
Any paycheck—Lace remembered—when you first started out, tended to make you feel rich.
“What are you going to do with your free afternoon?” Ryan asked her.
“I’m…”
Lace thought about it for a second, then decided to share. They’d been open with her. She could return the favor.
“I’m going to call this new guy I just started seeing.” The tips of her ears, she knew, were turning red, but her cap was on, so they wouldn’t notice.
“Oooh,” Zach teased, the information lightening his mood. “Has Lace got a boyfriend?”
She grinned. “Maybe.”
“What does he do for a living?” Ryan inquired.
“He’s a clown.”
It just popped out of her mouth before she could stop it.
Both men looked at her as if she’d grown two heads.
Lace giggled at their shock.
An explanation was clearly needed.
“He was actually a Navy SEAL for twenty years,” she explained, feeling a soul-deep pride over how Vince had served his country. “But now he’s working part time at a few different things to see if he can find a new passion.”
That might be fatherhood, if Vince could eventually petition for Inez.
She crossed her fingers where they lay on the bench, and went on.
“Right now, he wears a bunch of hats. He works at his family’s lumber mill, he helps his brothers out at Diver Downeast in town, then when he has the time, he does a clown thing at the hospital. That’s where I met him,” she added sheepishly.
“Wow,” Zach marveled. “You fell for a dude when he was dressed like a clown?” He shook his head. “You have a lot more balls than me. Clowns creep me out.”
Lace laughed. “Oh, Vince is too goofy to be menacing. He’s really a caring, gentle soul, despite being a bad-ass SEAL. I…” She swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. “I hope he sticks around.”
“You’re worried he won’t?” Zach asked astutely. “Because of the cancer?”
“Yeah. It’s a tough row to hoe, as you probably know, not just for the patient, but the people surrounding them. So, yeah. I’m a little nervous.”
“If he ditches you because of that,” Zach continued with a strength in his voice that said he knew what he was talking about, “he’s not worth your time.”
Lace shrugged her shoulders, putting an end to that conversation.
“I guess I’ll find out,” she replied, then pulled her phone from her pocket and saw that she had a few bars. “Right now, I’m going to text him and see if he’s free to meet up.”
“Good luck,” Ryan said distractedly, digging out his own phone to text with fingers that moved a lot more rapidly than hers.
“Yeah, Lace. Good luck,” Zach reiterated.
He sounded like he really meant it.